|
|
| |
The first electric-powered road vehicle is believed to have been
built in Scotland about 1839 by Robert Anderson, but it, along with
others within the next several years, were generally unsuccessful.
The steamer had to wait for a boiler to build up pressure and was
very noisy besides. The concept of an electrical engine that could
start immediately and run quietly was very attractive at that time.
There were disadvantages, however. Electric batteries were heavy,
bulky, unreliable, and needed recharging after a short run. In 1880,
there was a general improvement in the development of longer-lasting
batteries. There still existed, however, excessive weight and bulk of
the batteries and a need for frequent rechargings, although electric
cabs appeared on the streets of London in the late 1800s.
Steamers and electric vehicles gained only restricted acceptance on
the continent as well. In France, the electric had a shining, brief
hour of public acclaim when Camille Jenatzy, driving a Jeantaud
electric, pushed the cigar-shaped vehicle to a record of sixty miles
per hour on April 29, 1899. The high-speed run, however, burned out
the specially fabricated batteries and the interest in electrics died
almost as soon as the cheers of the attending public.
It was in America that steamers and electric cars gained their most
sustained measure of success. Eventually twenty different U.S. car
companies would produce electrics; and in the peak of popularity,
1912, nearly 35,000 were operating on American roads. But even
America could not shake the limitations of the bulky batteries and
the short ranges between recharging. Steamers were actually more
popular. More than 100 American plants were making steamers, the most
famous of which were the Stanley brothers factory in Newton,
Massachusetts. The "Stanley Steamer" had the affectionate nickname,
"The Flying Teapot," and with good reason. In 1906, a Stanley Steamer
was clocked at 127.6 miles per hour on the sands of Ormond Beach,
Florida. In spite of this, the steamers, along with the electrics,
were only living on borrowed time. Experiments were being made on an
automobile powered by a gasoline-fueled, internal-combustion engine,
and the steamers and electrics would not survive the impact of the
coming collision.
Internal-combustion automobiles did not just burst forth on the scene
all of a sudden to crowd the electrics and steamers off the road. The
theories of internal-combustion engines had been on the way ever
since 1860, when Etienne Lenoir applied to the authorities in Paris
for a patent on his invention, an internal-combustion engine powered
by coal gas. Two years later, Lenoir hooked his engine to a carriage,
and, although it was crude, it worked. It worked so poorly and so
slowly (about one mile an hour), however, that he became discouraged
and abandoned his efforts.
In 1864, a resourceful Austrian in Vienna, Siegfried Marcus, built a
one-cylinder engine that incorporated a crude carburetor and a
magneto arrangement to create successive small explosions that
applied alternating pressure against the piston within the cylinder.
Bolting his engine to a cart, Siegfried geared the piston to the rear
wheels, and while a strong assistant lifted the rear of the cart off
the ground, Siegfried started the engine. The wheels began to turn
and continued to turn with each successive "pop." Marcus signaled the
assistant to lower the cart and watched it burp along for about 500
feet before it ran out of fuel. Ten years later, he built the new,
improved version of his motorcar, and then, mysteriously washed his
hands of the entire thing, saying it was a waste of time. (The second
model, which is preserved in an Austrian museum, was refurbished and
taken for a test run in Vienna in 1950. It reached a top speed of ten
miles per hour on level ground.)
Although Lenoir and Marcus did not have the grit and determination to
pursue their enterprises, they made some valuable contributions to
the theory of internal-combustion engines. It would be overstating
the case to credit them with the creation of the internal-combustion
automobile, however.
|
|
|
|
|
